Your Daily Science News Source from Around the Globe
Everyone has seen lightning and marveled at its power. But despite its frequency – about 8.6 million lightning strikes occur worldwide every day – why lightning proceeds in a series…
The amount of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere makes it a habitable planet. Twenty-one percent of the atmosphere consists of this life-giving element. But in the deep past – as…
Newborns need to store vast amounts of new information quickly as they learn to navigate the world. Silent synapses – the immature connections between neurons that have no neurotransmitter activity…
Earlier this year, astronomers found an absolute monster of a galaxy. Lurking some 3 billion light-years away, Alcyoneus is a giant radio galaxy reaching 5 megaparsecs into space. That’s 16.3…
Our failure to decisively mitigate climate change is prompting researchers to examine more drastic approaches, like fertilizing the oceans to combat the massive excess of carbon dioxide in our air.…
For the first time, scientists have created a quantum computing experiment for studying the dynamics of wormholes – that is, shortcuts through spacetime that could get around relativity’s cosmic speed…
Multiple lines of evidence suggest that Mars wasn’t always the desiccated dustbowl it is today. In fact, the red planet was once so wet and sloshy that a megatsunami was…
Walking doesn’t require any special equipment or gym memberships, and best of all, it’s completely free. For most of us, walking is something we do automatically. It doesn’t require conscious…
If your kids aren’t keen on a particular dish, you might want to try changing the look of the crockery it’s served in. A new study has revealed how the…
Light that traveled for more than 8.5 billion years to reach us was the last gasp of a dying star as a black hole swallowed it. Two separate teams of…
An ancient bone is helping scientists refine the timeline of humanity’s relationship with our best friends – the canine companions that have brightened our lives for millennia. How many millennia?…
Most species are transitory. They go extinct, branch into new species or change over time due to random mutations and environmental shifts. A typical mammalian species can be expected to…
Without strong climate action, forests on every continent will be highly flammable for at least 30 extra days per year by the end of the century – and this fire…
Used by humans as a stimulant and anesthetic for thousands of years, the drug commonly known as cocaine has been carefully shaped by species of the coca plant (Erythroxylum) over…
Cannabis is one of the most widely used drugs in the world. While there are only a few countries where cannabis is legal for recreational use, many more countries have…
A study of 26 years’ worth of wolf behavioral data, and an analysis of the blood of 229 wolves, has shown that infection with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii makes wolves…
Some of Earth’s weirdest fungi, including types of lichen, mycorrhizal, and insect symbiotes, never quite seemed to fit in our current tree of life. But a new genetic analysis discovered…
Archaeologists have discovered several ancient mummies in Egypt sporting gold chips where their tongues should be. The auspicious discovery was made at the Quweisna (sometimes spelled Quesna) necropolis in the…
In one of the most polluted rivers in Central America, a vulnerable crocodile species is thriving despite living in waters that have become a sewer for Costa Rica’s capital, experts…
Today, Mars is colloquially known as the ‘Red Planet’ on account of how its dry, dusty landscape is rich in iron oxide (aka. ‘rust’). In addition, the atmosphere is extremely…
It’s unclear exactly where the myth that humans need to drink eight glasses of water a day came from – but we’ve probably all heard it at some point in…
Nobody knows who she was, just that she was different: A teenage girl from over 50,000 years ago of such odd uniqueness she appeared to be a ‘hybrid’ ancestor to…
Earth is about 29 percent land and 71 percent oceans. How significant is that mix for habitability? What does it tell us about exoplanet habitability? There are very few places…
NASA’s Orion spacecraft was placed in lunar orbit Friday, officials said, as the much-delayed Moon mission proceeded successfully. A little over a week after the spacecraft blasted off from Florida…
EMBARGO Friday 25 November 1900 GMT | Saturday 26 November 0600 AEDT Our glorious little blue marble of a planet is filled with an astonishingly diverse array of lifeforms, but…
Are you one of those people who seems to be forever spraining their ankle? To some extent, ankle sprains are part and parcel of being active. But if it’s happening…
Chris Hemsworth, famous for his role as the god Thor in Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, has announced he will be taking a break from acting after being told he has…
For just the sixth time in recorded history, astronomers managed to catch a glimpse of an asteroid before it slammed into Earth. On 19 November 2022, nearly four hours before…
As the world warms up, vast tranches of permafrost are melting, releasing material that’s been trapped in its icy grip for years. This includes a slew of microbes that have…
Money may not grow from trees, but something even better does. In a new study led by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, researchers found that each tree…
A newly found exoplanet just 200 light-years away could shed new light on one of planetary science’s strangest mysteries. At around 1.8 times the radius of Earth, the object named…
The United States Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved a new treatment for a rare blood clotting disease, one with a hefty price tag. Per dose, it’ll cost US$3.5…
The ripples in space-time generated by colliding black holes have taught us a lot about these enigmatic objects. These gravitational waves encode information about black holes: their masses, the shape…
Scientists may have just found a major new clue that could help solve the frustrating and ongoing mystery of the migraine. Using ultra-high-resolution MRI, researchers found that perivascular spaces –…
Is there anything good about volcanoes? They can be violent, dangerous, and unpredictable. For modern humans, volcanoes are mostly an inconvenience, sometimes an intriguing visual display, and occasionally deadly. But…
Just like most parts of the human body, our eyes gradually deteriorate over time. A new study now shows how stress can accelerate this aging process, a discovery that could…
Many of us rely on GPS (Global Positioning System) to estimate travel times, find our way to new places, avoid traffic congestion, keep track of the kids, and generally avoid…
The mental fog that can come with pregnancy – commonly referred to as ‘baby brain’ – isn’t merely the result of discomfort, stress, and sleepless nights: A mother’s brain really…
Rising levels of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere could exacerbate efforts to clean up our increasingly cluttered shell of orbiting space junk. According to two new studies, the greenhouse gas…
Fast-melting glaciers are releasing staggering amounts of bacteria into rivers and streams, which could transform icy ecosystems, scientists warn. In a study of glacial runoff from 10 sites across the…
In recent years, a growing number of scientific studies have backed an alarming hypothesis: Alzheimer’s disease isn’t just a disease, it’s an infection. While the exact mechanisms of this infection…